Spiritual Warfare

It's been months since I've had the time to make a post! So much has been happening with school and work and life in general.

I decided to catch up on some of my devotion reading out of my one book I got for Christmas last year. It's called "Voices of the Faithful" by Beth Moore. It's basically a book of inspiring stories of courage from Christians serving around the world. Yes I did just copy that from the front of the book. :P But Beth Moore is one of my favorite speakers, and she writes the intro for each new topic at the beginning of each month. Yes, I'm way behind since I'm just now starting the ones for October....

Anyway, October's devotions are on spiritual warfare, and at the beginning of October, Beth wrote something I thought I'd share.

J. R. R. Tolkien: "The board is set. The pieces are moving."
As we prepare for the return of the real King, the board is set and the pieces are indeed moving. Satan is sly. His motto? "Whatever works." He doesn't come in a red suit carrying a pitchfork. He fools spiritual people most easily when dressed as an angel of light. He comes as a friend. A Judas. Something that comforts our dysfunctional souls, pats our fleshy heads and sympathizes with our strongholds. He tries to gain our trust and assure us of things like this: "I understand you. No one could blame you. You deserve this. No one will ever know. God will forgive you anyway. You can't help it. Go ahead. Don't resist it. It's not that bad. Everybody's like this. No one's really free. Indulge. No harm done." Then one day Judas kisses you on the cheek and betrays you, and you see him for who he is. The result isn't pretty.
Stop flirting with the devil! Stop it before all hell literally breaks loose. Fight the fire. Let God deal with our stuff and surrender completely to Him. He knows best, whether we like it or not.
"Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:21-24, NIV).

I really thought that was awesome the way everything was worded here! It's so true! We, as Christians, often need to be "sifted like wheat" (Luke 22:31, NASB) like Peter had to be.
Imagine Christ saying, "You can either let me prune you [John 15], or I can use the devil to scare it out of you." We want the former, not the latter.

(I will try to not be so late with my next post. I originally wanted to post at least once a month, if not twice.)
God bless everyone who reads this!